Peter Aven

Mr. Aven is co-founder of the Genesis Prize Foundation. He is also co-founder of Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG), a private foundation whose mission is to develop and enhance a sense of Jewish identity among Russian-speaking Jews worldwide.

From 1994 to June 2011, Mr. Aven served as President of Alfa-Bank Russia. Mr. Aven was responsible for the Bank's overall strategy and relations with business and government leaders in Russia and abroad. Prior to joining Alfa-Bank Russia in 1994, Mr. Aven was Minister of Foreign Economic Relations for the Russian Federation (1991-1992), serving as Russia's representative to the Group of Seven, and conducting a number of high-level trade and economic missions to Western capitals.

An economist by training, Mr. Aven spent several years at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria (1989-1991). Currently, he is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ABH Holdings S.A. (holding company of Alfa-Banking Group), Member of the Board of Directors of Alfa-Bank Russia, and Chairman of the Board of Directors at JCS "AlfaStrakhovanie".

He is a trustee of the Boards of the Russian Economic School, of the center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) in Great Britain, of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. He is a member of the Presidium of Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC). He is also a professor at the State University Higher School of Economics. Since April 2006, he has been a member of the Board of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. In 2007, Mr. Aven became Chairman of the Russia-Latvian Business Council.

He graduated from the Moscow State University in 1977 and holds a Ph.D. in Econometrics. Mr. Aven was born in Moscow, Russia in 1955.